Azazeel : Historiographic Metafiction in the Contemporary Arabic Historical Novel)*(
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Alternative Histories in Youssef Ziedan's Azazeel : Historiographic Metafiction in the Contemporary Arabic Historical Novel)*( Dr. Hala Mohamed Kamel Amin Assistant Professor - Department of English Faculty of Al-Alsun – Beni Suef University Abstract Drawing on Linda Hutcheon's theory, this article reads Azazeel as a historiographic metafiction. It argues that the novel not only denounces the so-called religious, or religiously-motivated, violence but also has an additional epistemological import, articulated in the novel's historiographic metafictional narrative which, in accordance with Hutcheon's theory, provides an alternative history that foregrounds the 'narrativity' of historical narratives and represents the past from a 'marginal' perspective to question the absolute authority of metanarratives, undermine monolithic notions of knowledge, and develop a balanced production and dissemination of knowledge. The article examines the novel's use of historiographic metafictional techniques which reflect its thematic content and its espousal of the postmodern ideology of diversity and pluralism. The article demonstrates that, without denying its heritage, Azazeel engages with the global postmodern condition, locates the Arabic historical novel within the wider context of world historical fiction, and opens up new avenues for research on historiographic metafiction. )*( Bulletin of the Faculty of Arts Volume 81 Issue 2 January 2021 74 Bulletin of the Faculty of Arts Volume 81 Issue 2 January 2021 السرديات التاريخية البديلة في رواية "عزازيل" للكاتب يوسف زيدان: ما وراء القص التاريخي في الرواية التاريخية العربية المعاصرة د/ هالة محمد كامل أمين مدرس- قسم اللغة اﻻنجليزية- كلية اﻷلسن- جامعة بنى سويف الملخص : تقدم المقالة قارءة في ضوء نظريات ليندا هتشون لرواية عزازيل للكاتب يوسف زيدان كمثال من اﻷدب العربي لما وارء القص التاريخي. وتوضح المقالة أن الرواية التي تدور أحداثها حول اﻷحداث الدامية في مصر و شمال سوريا في القرن الخامس الميﻻدي تهدف إلى تحقيق فهم أشمل ليس فقط ﻷصول ظاهرة العنف الديني – أو العنف باسم الدين – الممتدة عبر التاريخ و دوافعها الحقيقية و لكن أيضا لطبيعة وحدود السرديات التاريخية والعوامل السياسية التي تلعب دوار في إنتاجها، مؤكدة على التشابه بين التاريخ و اﻷدب لكون كل منهما بناء سرديا. و تناقش المقالة تقديم الرواية سردا تاريخيا بديﻻ يبرز "سردية" التاريخ ويروي اﻷحداث التاريخية من وجهة نظر المجموعات المهمشة في تلك الحقبة التاريخية لتقويض هيمنة السرديات الكبري والمفاهيم الموحدة للمعرفة و ﻹحداث تغيير في إنتاج المعرفة ليصبح أكثر شموﻻ و توازنا. وتعرض المقالة استخدام الرواية للتقنيات المتعلقة بما و ارء القص التاريخي التي تعكس مضمون الرواية وأيضا تبني الرواية ﻷيدولوجية ما بعد الحداثة القائمة على التنوع و التعددية. و بذلك توضح المقالة أن عزازيل تمثل تحوﻻ هاما في تاريخ تطور الرواية العربية و تضع الرواية العربية في مصاف الروايات التاريخية العالمية و تفتح آفاقا جديدة للبحث والدارسات حول ما وارء القص التاريخي. 75 ـــــــــ Dr. Hala Amin: Alternative Histories in Youssef Ziedan's Introduction Azazeel (2008) is the controversial second novel by Youssef Ziedan, the Egyptian writer, university professor, and scholar of Islamic philosophy and ancient manuscripts. It won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) in 2009, and it was translated into twenty five languages. It is well-known that the novel outraged a large number of Egyptian Orthodox Christians for what they considered the novel's hostile attitude towards their religious doctrine and leading figures in the early Church of Alexandria. This article maintains that the novel does not stop at its problematic religious content. Drawing on Linda Hutcheon's theory on historiographic metafiction, the article reads Azazeel as a representative example of Arabic historiographic metafiction. It calls attention not only to the novel's hitherto-disregarded epistemological import, pertaining to the nature and limits of narrative representations of historical knowledge and the politics of their production, but also to an important shift in the evolution of the Arabic historical novel by the development of what has so far been regarded as a predominantly Western genre, i.e. historiographic metafiction. Although in the last few decades, numerous studies have been conducted on historiographic metafiction, none of them mentions any typical example from Arabic literature. The article argues that, together with a clear socio-political import, Azazeel has an additional epistemological import, articulated in the novel's historiographic metafictional narrative which, in accordance with Hutcheon's theory, provides an alternative history that foregrounds the 'narrativity' of historical narratives and represents the past from a 'marginal' perspective to question the absolute authority of metanarratives, undermine monolithic notions of knowledge, and develop a balanced production and dissemination of knowledge. For a long time, history has been a major source of inspiration for 76 Bulletin of the Faculty of Arts Volume 81 Issue 2 January 2021 novelists in the Arab world and, across different periods, they have adapted historical material in their novels for a variety of purposes. The article begins by sketching a brief outline of key moments in the history of the development of the Arabic historical novel. For, in order to really understand and appreciate the significance of Azazeel, as a historiographic metafiction, one must see it in relation to the tradition of the Arabic historical novel to which it belongs and wherein it represents a significant addition. An Overview of the Rise and Development of the Arabic Historical Novel Although, as Baian Rayhanova puts it, the definition of the genre "has become a vexed question" (71) in recent times, the historical novel remains a "child of mixed parentage" that "claims the right of invention reserved for fiction, but claims, also, to be based on historical reality" (Porter 315) . Whereas the historical novel appeared in Europe in the early nineteenth century when Sir Walter Scott's Waverly was anonymously published in 1814, the genre made its first appearance in the Arab world towards the end of the nineteenth century. As Mansour El-Hazmi puts it, "[i]n the last thirty years of the nineteenth century, a new literary genre was born in modern Arabic literature which was destined to live, to grow, and to attain, in due course, a certain maturity” ( 9). Whether the Arabic historical novel has foreign or indigenous origins is a matter of continued controversy among scholars. Although the impact of traditional Arabic historical romances cannot be overlooked (El-Hazmi 20), it is widely acknowledged that the European historical novel played no small part in bringing about the rise of the Arabic historical novel. All previous studies that tackle the development of the Arabic historical novel stress the fundamental role of the Syro-Lebanese émigrés who came to Egypt after the 1860 massacre; they were in charge of a substantial number of journals which regularly devoted space to the publication of fiction, including 77 ـــــــــ Dr. Hala Amin: Alternative Histories in Youssef Ziedan's translations of Western historical novels. According to Matti Moosa, despite the poor quality of the translations, their impact was immense (81). It was mainly through them that Arab writers in the nineteenth century could read, and afterwards emulate, European models such as Alexandre Dumas 's Le comte de Monte Cristo (1844) which gained enormous popularity at that time; and an interest in historical novels was created. The First Phase: The Educational Arabic Historical Novel The first historical emergence of the Arabic historical novel is always attributed to Salim al-Bustani, the Lebanese journalist, translator, and novelist who is rightly called "the precursor of the historical novel" (El-Hazmi 67). He published three historical novels: Zanubiya (Zanubiya, 1871), Budur (Budur, 1872), and Al-Hayam fi Futuh al-Sham ( Passion during the Conquests of Syria, 1874). However, it is Jurji Zaydan, the Lebanese historian, writer, and editor of the Egyptian periodical al-Hilal, who is often regarded as the real father of the Arabic historical novel (El-Hazmi 83-4). A few years after al-Bustani’s attempts, Zaydan "embarked upon his prolific novel-writing career" (Moosa 157) and wrote twenty one historical novels which cover different periods of Arab-Islamic history, thus establishing the historical novel as a distinctive genre in Arabic literature. Notable among the works which appeared during the earliest phase are Farah Antun's Urshalim al-Jadidah (New Jerusalem, 1904); Ya'qub Sarruf 's Amir Lubnan (The Prince of Lebanon, 1907); and Ahmad Shawki's 'Adhra'a al-Hind aw Tamaddun al-Fara'inah ( The Virgin of India, or the Civilization of Pharaohs, 1897), Ladyas (Ladyas, 1899), and Dall wa Taiman, aw Akhir al-Fara 'inah (Dall and Taiman, or the Last of the Pharaos, 1899) (El-Hazmi 168). The first generation of Arab historical novelists also included women authors such as Zaynab Fawwaz who wrote Husn al-'awaqib aw Ghadat al-zahira (Fine Consequences, or Radiant Ghada) in 1899 and al-Malik Qurush (King Cyrus) in 1905 78 Bulletin of the Faculty of Arts Volume 81 Issue 2 January 2021 (Elsadda 106-108) and Labiba Hashim who wrote Sherin in 1907 (Booth 146). Those early historical novels offered their readers entertainment as well as education about the history of the Arab nation and other nations; they mixed historical material with elements of romance to meet the taste of the reading public at that time. Nevertheless, most of them abound with technical and thematic flaws. For example, al- Bustani's